Prostate cancer is a major contributor to cancer mortality in American males causing projected death of approximately 27,360 men in 2009 (Jemal et al., Cancer J. Clin., 59: 225-249, 2009). Therapeutic modaliPSAties such as radical prostatectomy and radiotherapy are sometimes curative for localized disease, yet no treatments for metastatic prostate cancer that significantly increases patient survival are available.
Angiogenesis is critical in tumor progression and metastasis in most if not all solid tumors, since a functional vascular supply is required for the continued growth of solid tumors and the spread of cancer cells. Small non-growing tumors may remain dormant for years and the angiogenic switch to aggressive metastatic phenotype involves a change in the local equilibrium between factors inducing blood vessel formation and those inhibiting the process.
There is an ongoing and unmet need to develop compositions and methods for inhibiting angiogenesis as a therapeutic modality for treating solid tumors, and in particular, for prophylaxis and/or therapy of prostate tumors. The present invention meets this need.